Oregon hired a company to paint the Ross Island Bridge without knowing its safety record. Then a worker fell.

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SALEM -- The Oregon Department of Transportation's method for vetting contractors leaves the state open to hiring companies with troubling safety records, a review by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found.

That's exactly what happened when the department hired Abhe & Svoboda Inc. to repaint the Ross Island Bridge this year. Officials at the agency said when they chose the firm, they knew nothing of its safety history.

The company's track record includes accidents that killed and injured workers who were not wearing fall protection gear. Also on its record are repeated failures, as recently as 2011, to outfit bridge painters with adequate safety harnesses, safety records show.

Two Abhe & Svoboda workers were seriously injured in February at the Ross Island Bridge after a painter fell nearly 40 feet onto another worker -- his son -- who suffered broken bones and bleeding of the brain. A state review found the worker who fell was not wearing a harness as required. Even after the accident, a company safety officer dismissed state safety regulations as a moving target, inspectors wrote.

Abhe & Svoboda's chief financial officer said in an email that the company is contesting a $189,000 penalty levied by the state. The company maintains "a very strong safety culture," Tom Stockert said.

In fact, the fall was the first time an employee injury had triggered a safety investigation at the company in 19 years, federal safety records indicate. Overall, for the past 15 years, the company's track record for worker compensation claims has generally been below the industry average for painting firms that work in multiple states, the company's insurance records show.

But Oregon transportation officials who oversee contracting said they never knew of previous fall-prevention lapses by Abhe & Svoboda for one simple reason: They never asked.

A 2011 report in that database raises a potential red flag: Washington officials found Abhe & Svoboda painters working on a high bridge were wearing harnesses "long beyond their safe working life span." Inspectors twice told the company to replace the harnesses, but even after a third visit to the jobsite, "the issues were not fully corrected," according to an official report.

Companies like Abhe & Svoboda use hundreds of workers across the country, and bridge work carries some unavoidable risks. But records show the company was cited for repeated failures to ensure adequate fall protection systems and two worker deaths about 20 years ago, one from a fall.

The Ross Island Bridge pictured on Tuesday, April 25, during painting by contractor Abhe & Svoboda. The state department of transportation was unaware of the company's safety record prior to hiring it for the painting project. Beth Nakamura/Staff

Stockert, the company executive, said Abhe & Svoboda officials keep the prior accidents in mind in reinforcing safety. He said the company is not categorized as a repeat offender by federal safety regulators.

Minnesota-based Abhe & Svoboda is not alone among bridge-painting firms with a history that includes accidents in which workers died from falls. Falls are by far the most common cause of death for workers who do painting and wall hanging work. In 2015, the most recent year for which Bureau of Labor Statistics data is available, falls accounted for 19 of 36 deaths in that industry, many of them among self-employed painters.

Nick Walters, former head of the Midwest division of federal workplace safety investigators, said it's not "normal" for fatalities or serious falls to occur, however, even for firms with many workers in dangerous occupations like bridge painting. Walters, who is now a workplace safety consultant, said falls are "absolutely" preventable because the dangers of working at heights are well known and companies are required to have workers wear harnesses.

Transportation agency spokesman Don Hamilton said the state checks databases to vet contractors, but not the health and safety administration database specifically. Hamilton said he is unsure if the databases Oregon checks show safety infractions.

Companies wishing to bid on Oregon transportation projects file evaluation forms with the state and are put on a bidder list after passing muster. The forms include questions about a contractor's record with environmental regulations and labor laws. But there are no questions about a company's safety record.

In light of weaknesses identified by The Oregonian/OregonLive, transportation agency officials are rethinking their methods for checking on companies.

"We're going to consider whether this illustrates a need for changes," Hamilton said.

Once a project is underway, state-paid inspectors visit job sites to monitor the quality of work. At least one state inspector and two third-party inspectors hired by the state were at the Ross Island Bridge nearly every day during the project.

When the worker fell and badly hurt the painter below, the state's own inspector was away, but the two contract inspectors were on site. The state has no record of any inspectors informing regulators about safety problems they may have witnessed. That's not surprising though, because Hamilton said the agency instructs inspectors not to go to regulators with safety concerns.

"Let's remember that it is the contractor's obligation to enforce all safety regulations," Hamilton said. He added that the quality control inspectors "are not experts in safety."

And the state safety and health investigators looking into the Ross Island Bridge fall did not interview quality control inspectors at the bridge. According to agency spokesman Aaron Corvin, safety investigators were following a "fact pattern" that indicated the inspectors had nothing relevant to add.

"If we'd thought they had information we needed, then we would have talked to them," Corvin said.

OTHER STATES CHECK SAFETY RECORDS

Oregon's transportation agency is less aggressive on safety records than its counterparts in Washington, California and the City of Portland.

Portland's transportation bureau requires contractors to disclose any willful safety violations accrued in the past decade. A willful violation is one where a contractor knowingly flouts safety regulations or "acted with plain indifference to employee safety." Abhe & Svoboda has been hit with one willful violation in the last decade, in 2011 in Washington.

When vetting contractors, the Washington State Department of Transportation reaches out to state labor and safety regulators to learn about a company's safety record, said spokesman Lee Erickson. Washington officials also seek evaluations from a contractor's previous employers, which include questions about safety.

"We want to know that they (companies) perform safely," said Kari Beardslee, a contracting analyst for the Washington transportation agency.

Oregon Department of Transportation officials say they may change how contractors are vetted after learning that bridge painting firm Abhe & Svoboda was hired without the state having knowledge of its safety record.Beth Nakamura/Staff

In California, a contractor is required only to be licensed and insured before bidding on a project. But state transportation officials can rely on that licensing system to root out firms with a poor history of keeping workers safe, said Mark Dinger, a spokesman for California's transportation department.

A history of significant safety infractions would likely keep a company from bidding because of the California's tough licensing rules. "Getting licensed and bonded with a poor safety record would be extremely difficult in this state," Dinger said. However, Abhe & Svoboda maintains a current contractor license in California.

The licensing landscape is different in Oregon.

"We don't ask about safety violations and that kind of thing," said Stan Jessup, who heads the enforcement division of Oregon's construction contractor licensing agency. "I don't even think we have authority to ask."

Even if the Oregon Department of Transportation set a higher bar for worker protections, Abhe & Svoboda's imperfect safety record would not automatically disqualify it from winning contracts in Oregon. Its most serious safety infractions took place years ago, in 1996 and 1998.

Since then, the company painted the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport and Portland's Broadway Bridge without accidents triggering safety investigations. But a routine check by state safety inspectors in 2003 found Abhe & Svoboda painters on the Broadway Bridge working without adequate fall protection.

SAFETY HISTORY OVERLOOKED

Transportation agency officials had a recent, close-up opportunity to learn about Abhe & Svoboda's record. In 2011, Abhe & Svoboda repainted the Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River. Washington officials found serious health and safety violations on their side of the river, less than four miles from Oregon.

Records show Washington inspectors levied fines of more than $31,000 against the company for ignoring requirements to test employees for lead exposure, failing to provide respirators and using unsafe scaffolding, along with other violations. Old bridge paint contains lead, which can become airborne when sandblasted off for repainting, potentially leading to harmful health effects. Unsafe scaffolding is a leading cause of worker deaths at specialty contractors including bridge painting firms.

Hamilton, the transportation agency spokesman, said Oregon officials were unaware of the Washington fines until contacted by a reporter for this story. He said, "Our people were going, 'We never heard of that.'"

Investigators who looked into the double-injury fall concluded that Abhe & Svoboda's conduct at the Ross Island Bridge was so bad in their view that they handed down a $189,000 fine on June 19. It's an unusually large fine that officials noted was intended to send a message. At least eight workers on the bridge were not wearing fall protection on Feb. 8, the day of the accident, when they should have, according to state investigators.

Those investigators took pains to detail in an official report how Abhe & Svoboda's corporate safety manager brushed them off and quoted him as saying the company "doesn't worry" about state safety rules because they change too frequently. Stockert, the company executive, said Abhe & Svoboda's safety manager "denies having made the comments regarding state OSHA rules."

FALL RISKS REPEATED

Records show Abhe & Svoboda has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for workplace safety violations during its nearly 50-year history. The company had no major accidents between the 1998 death and the fall at the Ross Island Bridge, though it continued to have issues with fall prevention standards.

In 1998, the company was fined $250,000 after a scaffold failed in Maine, throwing a communications tower worker to the ground, 200 feet below. Another worker managed to hang on to the scaffold but was seriously injured. Inspectors found that neither worker was wearing fall prevention harnesses. Another fine, of $80,000, was levied for other violations on the same project.

A few years prior, in 1996, one employee was killed and another seriously hurt when a lift bucket truck tipped over in Wisconsin. The federal government assessed the firm a $3,500 fine.

In 2003, the company was fined $1,500 for inadequate fall protection systems for workers painting the Broadway Bridge.

While working on the Astoria-Megler Bridge, in 2011, the company equipped some of its workers with harnesses that were "long beyond their safe working life span" even after inspectors told them three times to replace the worn gear.

After Abhe & Svoboda was fined last month for safety problems on the Ross Island Bridge, Paul Mather, who heads the Oregon Department of Transportation's highways division, released a statement saying the agency is committed to ensuring safety of the public and workers. But Mather also said it's a contractor's responsibility to watch for safety problems.

Mather said the agency is "always open" to examining how it can improve job site safety and will review reports issued after the Ross Island Bridge accidents.

Hamilton, the agency spokesman, said officials can discipline contractors for bad behavior. They are considering such discipline against Abhe & Svoboda, he said, but "no decisions on that have been made."